Daily News Gems is my personal blog in which I comment, every now and again, on topics of particular interest to me, namely, newspaper history, baseball, American politics, and a selection of other burning issues of the day.

04/19/2016

A Peek Inside Pulitzer Country for 2016

Jack Ohman of the Sacramento Bee won a Pulitzer on Monday for Editorial Cartooning.

Illustration Credit: Sacramento Bee

In this the 100th year of awarding Pulitzer Prizes, the 2016 winners were announced at 3 p.m. eastern time on Monday via live-stream on pulitzer.org. The official announcement was made by Mike Pride, administrator of The Pulitzer Prizes. http://goo.gl/xXzrt2

By January 25, about 1,100 journalism entries have been submitted to the Pulitzer digital entry Website where they were reviewed by jurors. More than 2,400 entries are typically submitted each year in the Pulitzer Prize competitions with only 21 awards normally distributed.

Pulitzer Prizes were established in 1917 by provisions in the will of American (Hungarian-born) publisher Joseph Pulitzer, a pioneer in American journalism, who was known for his dogged investigatory attacks on government corruption during his stewardship as publisher of both the New York World and St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The first Pulitzer Prizes were awarded June 4, 1917.

The awards are administered by Columbia University in New York City.

Since its inception, the original four categories have expanded to include cartoons (1922), photography (1942); and in 1968, categories were divided into spot or breaking news and feature.

The Pulitzer Prize Board has additionally expanded eligibility in five categories: Investigative Reporting, International Reporting, Feature Writing, Criticism and Editorial Cartooning. Magazines and their websites that publish at least weekly may enter only these categories.

In all other categories, according the Pulitzer's website, entries must come from a U.S. newspaper or news site that publishes at least weekly.

In 2016, The Associated Press won in the category of Public Service for their investigation of severe labor abuses tied to the supply of seafood to American supermarkets and restaurants, reporting that freed 2,000 slaves, brought offenders to justice and triggered much needed reforms. http://goo.gl/8a1nbK

For a distinguished example of Investigative Reporting, using any available journalistic tool, Leonora LaPeter Anton and Anthony Cormier of The Tampa Bay Times and Michael Braga of the Sarasota HeraldTribune collaborated to expose the escalating violence and neglect in Florida mental hospitals, an exceptional investigation which placed the blame at the doorstep of state officials. http://goo.gl/ine5wG

Alissa J. Rubin, the Paris bureau chief of The New York Times won the top prize in the category of International Reporting for her careful examination of the abuse and injustice faced by women in Afghanistan. http://goo.gl/tY7ZAT

Four New York Times photographers: Tyler Hicks, Mauricio Lima, Sergey Ponomarev and Daniel Etter won a Pulitzer for breaking news photography (its third photography prize in three years) for a collection of images of migrants seeking asylum in Europe. http://goo.gl/j8A4Cz . They shared the prize with the news agency Reuters, who followed migrant refugees hundreds of miles across uncertain boundaries to unknown destinations. http://goo.gl/UNys9Y

In addition to the New York Times coming away with two top prizes, they were finalists in eight other categories.

In Explanatory Journalism T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Ken Armstrong of The Marshall Project came away with a Pulitzer for their stunning examination and exposé of law enforcement's systemic failures to investigate reports of rape properly and to comprehend the traumatic effects on its victims.

According to the Pulitzer committee, Miller and Armstrong's investigation, ``illuminates a significant and complex subject, demonstrating mastery of the subject, lucid writing and clear presentation, using any available journalistic tool.'' https://goo.gl/PlOn6H

The staff of the Washington Post won in the category of National Reporting for creating and using a national database to illustrate how often and why the police shoot to kill and who the victims are most likely to be. https://goo.gl/leffqe In their investigation, the Post documented every shooting death at the hands of police in 2015, revealing troubling patterns which sparked such shootings and the characteristics of the victims.

Farah Stockman of the Boston Globe earned a Pulitzer for commentary in her examination of the legacy of busing and segregation in Boston. http://goo.gl/BzHE95 . Stockman is now reporting for The New York Times. When the announcement was made on Monday, the Globe newsroom skyped Stockman, according to a Globe staffer.

The Tampa Bay Times won in the category of Local Reporting in their scrupulous examination of the alarming failure rates among black students in Pinellas County, the worst place in Florida to be black and educated within a broken public school system. http://goo.gl/3PGjyz

In Breaking News, The Los Angeles Times adeptly answered the call to home grown terrorism in reporting on the San Bernardino, Calif., shootings when Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik, a married Redlands couple, opened fire at a holiday potluck at the Inland Regional Center in which 14 people were killed and 22 were seriously injured. http://goo.gl/UqG9D8

In the second year of allowing magazines to be considered for a Pulitzer, The New Yorker were beneficiaries of two top prizes. The New Yorker'sKathryn Schulz won for Feature Writing for her elegant scientific narrative of the rupturing of the Cascadia fault line, ``a masterwork,'' according to the Pulitzer Committee, `` of environmental reporting and writing.'' http://goo.gl/JYlDRW

Emily Nussbaum, in the category of Criticism, also won a Pulitzer for the New Yorker for sharp penetrating television reviews and shrewd commentary, including Joan Rivers, http://goo.gl/E2l544 the television drama Mad Men http://goo.gl/sYhtFx and P.J. Sidney http://goo.gl/ZiFJxy , an African American television actor whose career spanned four decades all the while protesting racism within the industry.

Boston Globe staff photographer Jessica Rinaldi won the Pulitzer Prize in feature photography for her compelling depiction of a boy living in poverty in Maine. https://goo.gl/YTXBFG

The Pulitzer Committee recognized John Hackworth of Sun Newspapers, Charlotte Harbor, FL in the category of Editorial Writing for his ``fierce, indignant editorials that demanded truth and change after the deadly assault of an inmate by corrections officers.'' http://goo.gl/7i1qkC

Finally, Sacramento Bee editorial cartoonist Jack Ohman was awarded the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for a wide diverse selection of drawings, exploring hot button issues of the day, including gun violence, marriage equality, terrorism and the state of the American political system. http://goo.gl/xU1N77

``The mood is jubilant. This is our third award in seven years and it’s always an amazing moment. There’s so much excellent writing and reporting being done today in journalism, despite the cutbacks, that it is an incredible honor to be a finalist, as was Abrahm Lustgarten, let alone a winner.

And it was all the more exciting to have worked with our colleagues on The Marshall Project; this was truly a collaborative venture.''

-Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica Managing Editor

Pics of ProPublica Newsroom

Photo Credit: Edwin Torres for ProPublica

Los Angeles Times

``It's a great day for the newsroom, a reminder when LA Times journalists came together to cover a tragic, heart wrenching story in our community. It's a team effort that everyone's proud of. ''

Davan Maharaj, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of the LA Times.

``Happily surprised that we won, real proud of our folks. They did an amazing job.''

Colin Crawford, Deputy Managing Editor, Visual Journalism

Photo Credit: Photography Staff of the Los Angeles Times

Tampa Bay Times

PHOTO BLOG

``Investigative reporter Michael LaForgia hugs his wife Cara Fitzpatrick on Monday in the Tampa Bay Times newsroom when it was announced that the couple had won the Pulitzer for local reporting along with Lisa Gartner, who stands beside them. The three wrote the Failure Factories articles which exposed the school system’s neglect of five largely black Pinellas County schools. Also in photo are: (l-r) Leonora LaPeter Anton, who won for investigative reporting; Times chairman and CEO Paul Tash; Chris Davis, deputy managing editor for data and investigations; and Anthony Cormier, who won with Anton for their series that showed how violence and death got worse after the state cut funding to mental hospitals.''